Natural Alternatives: Evening Primrose Oil for Treating ADHD

People share stories about Evening Primrose Oil as a natural remedy for treating symptoms of ADHD.

Ed. Note: This has been tried extensively by many people with a lot of quite astounding success stories. We have to say though, we tried it with Richard for a long period with no obvious effect. This does not mean however, that it does not work for others.

Wendy writes:

I have a seven year old boy who has been severely hyperactive since birth. We joined the Hyperactive Children's Support Group when he was a year old.   Following their advice we placed him on a restricted diet (with doctors' advice as he was so young). This worked but was very hard work. When he was 2 years old we gave him evening primrose oil. It worked miracles. Within minutes he had changed. We found we could now give him a much more varied diet as long as he had the evening primrose. When he was four, we gave him another vitamin which was recommended which was Efavite (a mixture of B vitamins etc). By the time he was six, we had virtually eliminated all his hyperactivity. He was still an active child but most people would not believe he was hyper at all!

As far as his schooling is concerned, his teacher won't mention the ADD as she believes he is no different from others of his age now. We still have to be careful with diet as a wrong food may cause him problems with reading or math for a day or so, but he is now in the middle stream of the school.

We know that the evening primrose plays a big part, as sometimes if I run out for a couple of days, he does become the hyper boy again but even so, he is still relatively easy to manage as he is now beginning to know what is and isn't acceptable behaviour.

I know all children are different, but I can vouch that the Feingold Diet Program, combined with evening primrose oil can make a world of difference.

Sharon from New Zealand writes....

Both my girls aged 5 and 13, can be very hyper, although I wouldn't say that they have attention deficit disorder. Just wanted to let you know that I have them both on Evening Primrose Oil and the results are astounding. The 13 year old had such mood swings and now is calm, relatively speaking. The five year old comes out of school grizzly and in a frenzy and then I realise I forgot to give her a capsule in the morning. Within about 10 mins of taking it when we get home, I have a reasonably calm child again (I say that because what 5 year old is calm after a day of school? *grin*).

I take evening Primrose Oil myself and since I started taking it, I don't want to leave home once a month. I get a little ratty but not nearly like I used to.

So I have come to the conclusion that the "females" in our family are lacking the GLA or whatever in Evening Primrose Oil. I know it is present in breastmilk and the youngest nursed til she was 4 and it was only after she weaned that I noticed her getting hyper at times. The older one nursed til she was 3 and I noticed her becoming abominable after that but thought that's just what 3 year olds do...well...many I saw didn't!!!

Ed. Note: Please remember, we do not endorse any treatments and strongly advise you to check with your doctor before using, stopping or changing any treatment.

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